Pumas and America tie in the 9th week of the Clausura 2020
What a thrilling game in the derby from the capital between two teams that are contenders to lift the title this semester in Liga MX.
Pumas and America didn’t come into the capital derby at the Olympic stadium in their best form. The home team had lost two games in a row including the big loss against Tigres with a hat-trick from Andre-Pierre Gignac.
While the visiting team had a questionable game of their own against Necaxa last week after two of their players were handed red cards and America suffered a tough loss at home.
The game started on Friday night with a great atmosphere in the stands. The beginning of the game was explosive: on the fourth minute Nicolas Freire made a great cross for Ignacio Malcorra, and his headed effort was one Guillermo Ochoa could do nothing to prevent the home team from celebrating the first goal of the game.
Soon the team managed by Miguel Herrera were level. On the 30th minute the new player from America, Leonardo Suarez, tied the game after a wonderful free kick. The Pumas goalie didn’t react and just saw the ball as it kissed the back of the net.
The second half was as electrifying as the first. Ochoa was America’s best player at the beginning, blocking all the shots that came near his goal. It was not until the 72nd minute when Pumas goalie Alfredo Saldivar made a terrible mistake when he tried to pass the ball to a defender but it fell short and Federico Viñas intercepted it, and went on to score the second goal for the visiting team who now led 2-1.
In the 82nd minute, though, Malcorra leveled things up for the home team. Pumas were improved after Favio Alvarez came into the game and it was he who gave a fantastic pass outside the box to Dinenno who chipped the ball as Ochoa came out. Just like that the home team was up 3-2 and the home crowd went crazy.
After 68 days without playing a game, Miguel Herrera decided to send on Roger Martinez and also Giovani dos Santos, but both failed to make a difference for America. The referee gave 4 minutes of added time and on the 92nd America had one of the last chances to tie the game.
The visiting team had a free kick in their favor, even Guillermo Ochoa went into the area, and after pushing and shoving inside the box Henry Martin was able to header the ball and score the final goal of the game to give America one point at the beginning of the 9th week.
With this tie against Pumas, America is at the top of the table with 17 points awaiting Cruz Azul’s result. On the other hand Pumas are in fourth place and will have to face Leon next week.